Oldest Original Owner Collection 1 1

[sfcityduck]

Marty,

i do not doubt that no one the boards is the OO of a collection older than yours.  And there are few active comic fans left of your age.  Harlan Ellison had his OO collection that was about the same age as yours which was quite nice, but he died last year.  Time is passing, so it is nice to hear the stories.

[tth2]

You just have to do the math.  Anyone who was 5 years old in 1940 is now 83-84 years old. 

Personally, I'm amazed that any Golden Age Original Owner collections are still with the Original Owner.  The number of OO collections from that era that were kept by the OO was microscopic to start with, and then for the OO to still be alive means they've got an above average lifespan.  So we're talking about a fraction of a very small fraction.  

[Marty Mann]

8 hours ago, tth2 said:

You just have to do the math.  Anyone who was 5 years old in 1940 is now 83-84 years old. 

Personally, I'm amazed that any Golden Age Original Owner collections are still with the Original Owner.  The number of OO collections from that era that were kept by the OO was microscopic to start with, and then for the OO to still be alive means they've got an above average lifespan.  So we're talking about a fraction of a very small fraction.  

I'll be 85 in September...and the thing that amazes me is that SO MANY Golden Age comics are still around in such good condition.

I know some of mine are still in the 6.5 to 7.0 range but to see them in 9.0's is truly fantastic.

Marty

[BB-Gun]

On ‎1‎/‎24‎/‎2019 at 8:54 AM, Marty Mann said:

Thank you!  I know there are older collections as mine only begins in 1942...but I was just curious to know if any other living

Original Owners are out there still in possession of their collection.

Marty

 

I was trying to discuss collectors that are older than me who still have their original collection.  My original collection starts with the silver age.  Marty's collection starts with the Golden Age.  Some long-time collectors are known such as Roy Thomas, Maggie Thompson, Raymond Miller,  but I don't know if any of them have contributed to the boards.  There are probably a few more that never posted anywhere but still have their original collections.  Ed Lehmann was a collector that didn't contact people by email at one time.  Old collections come to the market all of the time but may be from forgotten collections that are found during house cleaning or estate sales.  I was trying to expand our discussion rather than limit it to collections that have been identified on line as original owner collections.

[Sqeggs]

Marty, I think you are definitely the board's OO king!

There was an OO GA collection, including some keys, brought to market by Hake's last summer. I don't think they gave the back story to it (or if they did, I missed it). So, I don't know if the OO is still alive. 

[tth2]

16 hours ago, Marty Mann said:

I'll be 85 in September...

16 hours ago, Marty Mann said:

and the thing that amazes me is that SO MANY Golden Age comics are still around in such good condition.

I know some of mine are still in the 6.5 to 7.0 range but to see them in 9.0's is truly fantastic.

It is indeed amazing. 

So many other paper collectibles from that period or earlier don't seem to have been nearly as well preserved (book dust jackets, pulps, etc.) 

[mwotka]

Being of a somewhat younger generation and only collecting GA for the last decade, I have not been privileged to grow into the hobby with many folks like Marty around.  It is so fascinating to me to hear these stories.  But I have met one local guy who is about Marty's age I think.  He has let go of pretty much all his comics over the years, but I know he still has the New York World's Fair 1939 issue that his aunt brought him back as a present/souvenir from when she visited the fair.   It is super rough, since he was a young kid at the time, but I always thought that story was so cool, especially since it is a 1930s book.   Not an online guy at all though.  So Marty is likely reigning champ on here.  

[Marty Mann]

I really appreciate all of the kind comments...if anyone has questions about my collection I would be pleased

to try and answer them.

Marty

[telerites]

1 hour ago, Marty Mann said:

I really appreciate all of the kind comments...if anyone has questions about my collection I would be pleased

to try and answer them.

Marty

Hey MM

I have lots of questions and you may have shared in your Top Two thread so may have missed them.

First, I assume you had limited comic money to spend, so how or what made you pick the books you did - was the cover, the character, friends telling you, something else?

Where did you buy the books, a newsstand, drug store, bith, other?

How did you get money to buy the books?

What made you think to hang on to them and were you ever tempted to throw them out?

Did you collect anything else?

And I will stop with this one - do you have any pictures of you as a youngster with or reading your comics?  If so, it would be great to post them here or in the Pictures thread.

Thanks 

[Marty Mann]

WOW!...thank you for asking I'll try to cover it all.

1- My selection process was anything that struck me as new or different...always loved first issues.

I had my regulars CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES, ALL-STAR COMICS, DELL 4-COLOR COMICS,

BATMAN COMICS, MUTT & JEFF COMICS...and so on but I really loved the variety.

2- I bought comics where ever we happened to live at the time...my favorite was a newsroom on

Bloomfield Avenue in Newark NJ...this is where all my "N" Copies came from.  I bought most of my

DELL/4-COLR COMICS at W.T. GRANTS.  On Sundays I was able to pick up STREET & SMITH issues

at the UNION NEWS COUNTER at the Train Station.  Greyhound Bus Station also had an unusual

selection of comics.

3- I made money as a kid doing whatever job I could find but mainly by shining shoes on the street

corner, and by delivering groceries from the Super Market. 

4- Never gave a thought to getting rid of any and I was lucky to have parents that let me cart those

boxes around.

5- I collected U.S. Postage Stamps...the 5 & 10 sold packets of used U.S. Stamps for a dime.

6- Sorry no pictures.

Hope I covered what you requested.

Thanks!

Marty

 

[telerites]

17 minutes ago, Marty Mann said:

 

Hope I covered what you requested.

Thanks!

Marty

 

Great history, MM.  When I was a youngster in the early 70s, we lived in a small town and I would walk main street and dig through trash bins for pop bottles since they could be returned traded them in for comics.  My mom bought some books for me too.  I still have all of mine too but my first comic started with Defenders #2 in 1972. 

Were you allured and drawn to any of the pulps?

I'm an avid old time radio listener with the Shadow being my favorite - any memories of radio shows like favorites and did they spur you to buy a comic if the character was featured in a book?

Or the newspaper comic strip sections like Flash Gordon and such?

And what about the old serials (again, I am an fan of the serials - Buster Crabbe, the King of Serials, my personal fav but the Captain Marvel serial is my fav serial and I believe regarded as the or one of the best.  

[Marty Mann]

1- When it came to Pulp Magazines they were always displayed near the comic books and I loved to look

at the covers but they held no real interest for me...they were more adult reading.

2- As far as radio it was my first love and characters like CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT, JACK ARMSTRONG, The

GREEN HORNET , The LONE RANGER and  SUPERMAN were ALL my favorites and I was always

thrilled to find comic books featuring them.

3- Loved the Comic Strips and always picked up copies of ACE COMICS, KING COMICS, TIP TOP COMICS , COMICS

ON PARADE or any Comic that featured reprints of past Comic Strips.

4- A big part of going to the movies on Saturday was the Cartoons and the SERIAL.  My favorite was THE PHANTOM.

 

Marty

[telerites]

9 minutes ago, Marty Mann said:

1- When it came to Pulp Magazines they were always displayed near the comic books and I loved to look

at the covers but they held no real interest for me...they were more adult reading.

2- As far as radio it was my first love and characters like CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT, JACK ARMSTRONG, The

GREEN HORNET , The LONE RANGER and  SUPERMAN were ALL my favorites and I was always

thrilled to find comic books featuring them.

3- Loved the Comic Strips and always picked up copies of ACE COMICS, KING COMICS, TIP TOP COMICS , COMICS

ON PARADE or any Comic that featured reprints of past Comic Strips.

4- A big part of going to the movies on Saturday was the Cartoons and the SERIAL.  My favorite was THE PHANTOM.

 

Marty

I was born 40 years too late 

[jpepx78]

Hi Marty

When you were buying comics in the 40s & 50s were you aware about the debate about the contents of comics? Did your parents, friends' parents or other adults show concerns about the contents of comics affecting kids? If there were concerns, did you notice any actions like comic buying restrictions, trashings, burnings, protests or newsdealer restrictions? Thanks.

[MrBedrock]

4 hours ago, Marty Mann said:

2- I bought comics where ever we happened to live at the time...my favorite was a newsroom on

Bloomfield Avenue in Newark NJ...this is where all my "N" Copies came from.  I bought most of my

DELL/4-COLR COMICS at W.T. GRANTS.  On Sundays I was able to pick up STREET & SMITH issues

at the UNION NEWS COUNTER at the Train Station.  Greyhound Bus Station also had an unusual

selection of comics.

 

 

This is super interesting to me. I have heard from other older collectors that different newsstands carried different publishers and that some publishers, like Nedor and as you mention here - Street and Smith, were specifically available in train stations or on trains. Fascinating stuff. Thanks Marty!

[RockMyAmadeus]

I love your history, Marty...not many people left who bought books off the stands in WWII.

Thanks for sharing.

[Marty Mann]

13 hours ago, jpepx78 said:

Hi Marty

When you were buying comics in the 40s & 50s were you aware about the debate about the contents of comics? Did your parents, friends' parents or other adults show concerns about the contents of comics affecting kids? If there were concerns, did you notice any actions like comic buying restrictions, trashings, burnings, protests or newsdealer restrictions? Thanks.

I do remember people saying that reading comic books was a waste of time...and I remember that newsrooms with wall racks for comics

always seemed to place the EC CRIME and HORROR COMICS way up high out of the reach of smaller kids.

Marty

[lpsunburst]

On 1/26/2019 at 6:42 PM, sfcityduck said:

Marty,

i do not doubt that no one the boards is the OO of a collection older than yours.  And there are few active comic fans left of your age.  Harlan Ellison had his OO collection that was about the same age as yours which was quite nice, but he died last year.  Time is passing, so it is nice to hear the stories.

I was offered a bunch of Harlan's EC's a while back. They were very well read and did not have any notations so I passed but cool provenance none the less.

[Marty Mann]

A good bunch of my EC COMICS are remainder copies that I was able to pick up years ago (1950-53) for 5 cents each.

Marty

 

Edited January 29, 2019 by Marty Mann

[Marty Mann]

With so many of these DAISY AIR RIFLE ads for the DAISY HANDBOOK no Golden Age Collection is complete

without a copy.